Thanksgiving is on the way here-so time to figure out stuffing. I must not forget stuffing this year. I must not forget the stuffing this year. I must not forget the stuffing this year. Yes, I forgot last year. Yes. I am still hearing about it.

I tend to cheat when it comes to stuffing. Stove Top makes most of the family happy. Denise’s stuffing makes them all happy except me. (The crumby kind in a bag–made with water. Sorta mushy and bleah) I grew up with a traditional stuffing like the one below and a stuffing with apricots and raisins added.

This however is a very traditional stuffing without any mixes. I tend to toss some of the drippings from the fully cooked turkey to the stuffing in place of the butter and add a bit more for moisture if needed.

Last night’s dinner was a sherried chicken. (Throw a cut up whole chicken in a 9 x13 pan with about a cup of cooking sherry and a can of evaporated milk and half can of water-bake at 350 until done.)
There were leftovers–girl child was not home for dinner and the chicken was bigger than normal in the beginning. That means real chicken salad today for lunch. Ok, so I also made some mock chicken salad too.

I tend to go with the thought that the best chicken salad is the simplest.

1-2 cups cut up leftover chicken

2 stalks celery finely chopped

1/4 cup onion, finely chopped

Enough mayo to stick it together

Add about a teaspoon of lemon juice if the chicken was baked plain or boiled without additional flavor.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Chop everything about the same size. Mix together. Dollop on some bread. Add a slice or two of tomato and a leaf of lettuce if you want to get fancy. Also makes a lovely ladies luncheon served on a lettuce cup.

It is called explosively good because well, we have a little microwave. It doesn’t defrost very well and the chicken was frozen this morning. I ran it through the defrost, but it wasn’t quite defrosted enough to stick in the slow cooker. If I was oven cooking it, I would have shrugged and stuck it in the oven, but I wasn’t. I hit the button to defrost some more, but I think perhaps I forgot to hit defrost. 10 min later I had a mess in the microwave-thus the explosive. You can skip that part.

We had it for dinner tonight. The kids LOVED it. They want it again. I doubled the broth part because I was worried it wouldn’t be enough in my big crockpot-things often aren’t. I didn’t need to worry. I also skipped the skinning the chicken part. I put it breast side down in the crockpot for most of the cooking, then turned it over about an hour before I served it. It wasn’t necessary but shrug. I did.

I served it with rice on the side and ladled a bit of the juice/sauce over the top of that and vegetables. In any case, the family loved it. It made for a delicious chicken-y scent in the house too. We walked in from a busy day and dinner smelled yummy.

It made a nice busy day dinner and a nice change of pace from our usual roasted chicken.

Recipe card collections from publishers tend to be as fascinating and sometimes horrifying as the recipe cards handwritten by someone’s grandmother. Some stuff is to die for good and others frightening. This 1973 recipe card from McCall’s is not quite either. It is amusing in a “this recipe comes from our newest state” sort of way. It also makes me glad that food photography is not my thing. I know that in a decade or two, the food pictures will seem as outdated and quaint.

Onward with the recipe–frugal…only 2 legs, 2 breasts to serve 4 people….a bit sweet but you can cut the sugar a bit. It won’t glaze as nicely but unless you seriously like your chicken sweet…a good idea.